


First Impressions

by seonghwazz



Series: Cinderella, But The Other Way Round [1]
Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Rich, Arranged Marriage, M/M, dishwasher!yeosang, heir!hongjoong, hongjoong meets seonghwa, it's a series!, jongho and hongjoong are supposed to be betrothed to each other, no beta we die like men, please enjoy, rich boy!jongho, rich boy!san, san and jongho are bros, servant!mingi, servant!seonghwa, servant!wooyoung, stable boy!yunho, they don't like each other very much tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:54:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24143161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seonghwazz/pseuds/seonghwazz
Summary: In which Seonghwa meets Jongho's new fiance for the first time. Based off of that one Hello 82 episode.This is part one of a series, so it'll be stylized as a one-shot.Enjoy!
Relationships: Choi Jongho/Jeong Yunho, Choi Jongho/Kim Hongjoong, Choi San/Jung Wooyoung, Kim Hongjoong/Park Seonghwa
Series: Cinderella, But The Other Way Round [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1742287
Comments: 8
Kudos: 66





	First Impressions

“hurry up, boy!”, the cook scolded, bashing seonghwa on the back of his head with her ladle. “we don’t have all day!” 

“sorry!”, seonghwa squawked back, spooning soup into the fancy bowls that were probably worth more than everything he owned. yeosang chuckled quietly next to him, scrubbing at the salad dishes.

today would be the first time that jongho’s (his master’s youngest son) betrothed fiancé would come to the choi residence. hence why the entire house was in a frenzy to make sure that everything was right.

seonghwa could care less, though. it wasn’t like getting on the boyfriend’s good side was a power move; jongho and san liked him just fine, and it wasn’t like he would be fired anytime soon.

he balanced the bowls of soup on a tray and took them outside, handing them to the servant standing by the double doors of the dining room. the servant, wooyoung, gave seonghwa a sly grin as the older male helped him open the door.

seonghwa sighed; wooyoung and san’s not-so-secret relationship was going to get wooyoung fired and san disowned someday. seonghwa swears that he saw them kissing (yes, KISSING) by the fountain in the back garden, where everybody could see. “at least be a little more discreet”, he remembered telling wooyoung before bed, after the lovers had almost gotten caught red-handed.

the lanky boy ran back to the kitchen, getting whacked again for “slacking off”. “sorry, cook”, he apologised, rubbing at the lump forming at the back of his head.

“make yourself useful and help me”, yeosang quipped, tossing seonghwa a rag so that he could help with the dishes. seonghwa stuck his tongue out at yeosang, but took it anyway. 

“have you seen him yet?”, seonghwa asked, as he scrubbed at a plate. “the fiancé, i mean.” yeosang brushed his honey-brown hair out of his eyes, shrugging. “yunho says that he saw jongho’s fiancé get off a carriage when he was mucking the stables earlier. he’s got red hair.”

seonghwa shuddered. “red hair? jongho can do so much better.” yeosang laughed, snorting loudly. “true. he always acts so nonchalant when he’s around yunho but we all know that he spends twenty-three out of twenty-four hours fantasising about yunho carrying them hay bales.”

“poor jongho”, seonghwa agrees. he can’t help but feel bad for him; he’s barely out of diapers (he’s seventeen, but in seonghwa eyes he’ll always be the eight year old boy he’s served since he was fifteen) and he already has to get fucking married, for pete’s sake.

seonghwa and yeosang finish the dishes in silence, thanks to cook shooting them a death glare. “seonghwa, be a dear and take these out”, cook orders tiredly, handing him plates of steak. seonghwa feels his mouth water at the smell; cook always makes the best food.

seonghwa takes the plates, puts them onto a tray, and carefully runs down the hall. wooyoung is giggling like a maniac by the door, twirling a necklace in his fingers.

“don’t tell me”, seonghwa groans, as he approaches wooyoung. “another present?” wooyoung nods dreamily, showing seonghwa the latest addition to his collection. the necklace has a silver chain, with a little gold pendant of a key.

“san’s got the lock. isn’t this romantic?”, wooyoung sighs, playing with the pendant. “no”, seonghwa says flatly. “i don’t want you fired. please, act a little more carefully?”

wooyoung rolls his eyes. “hand me the food. we’ll talk at bedtime”, wooyoung mumbles, reaching for the tray. seonghwa sighs; young love. he was only older than wooyoung by three years, yet he always felt like his father (he did technically raise him, though).

seonghwa doesn’t catch a single glimpse of the fiancé that night. when yunho comes back to the servant quarters that night, smelling like horse shit, seonghwa decides to ask him about the red-haired fiancé.

“yunho, who’s the fiancé?”, he asks, as the taller man changes out of his work clothes. the room that they used as the servants quarters weren’t cramped, but with four grown men living together, it could get quite stuffy. 

“red-haired man who’s shorter than me by a head. i swear, he looks younger than jongho”, yunho deadpans. “i’m tired, hyung. talk to you in the morning?”

seonghwa nods, patting the boy on the shoulder. “go to sleep. i’ll try to smuggle you an extra egg tomorrow morning.” yunho smiles gratefully before scaling the bunk bed ladder to reach the top bunk, flopping down tiredly.

wooyoung and yeosang come back from the washroom smelling like roses, the latter trailing after him with a goofy grin. “what, you two been fucking?”, yunho teases, yelping as yeosang climbs on the ladder to flick him on the forehead. 

“i thought you were tired?”, seonghwa fires back, reaching up to slap yunho on the arm. “go to fucking sleep.” yunho grins. “g’night.” yeosang rolls his eyes, stepping over yunho’s rank overalls to get to the bed that he shares with seonghwa.

“wooyoung? you said to talk later?”, seonghwa asks quietly, careful not to wake yunho. wooyoung sighs (seonghwa really was inevitable), sitting down next to seonghwa on his double bed. yeosang has turned to face away from the two, falling asleep to yunho’s slightly loud snoring.

wooyoung fingered the locket on his neck, a small smile emerging. seonghwa wanted wooyoung to be happy; hell, he hated having to tell wooyoung to tone it down with san in public. he wanted wooyoung to be able to love who he wanted, but he just didn’t want to see wooyoung getting chucked onto the streets.

“woo, i love you. you know that, don’t you?”, seonghwa started. wooyoung nodded, smiling a half-smile. “i support your love life a hundred percent. i just don’t want you get fired and-“

wooyoung cuts him off with a hug, squeezing the older male tightly. “hyung. i understand your concerns. i promise not to be too kissy with san when master choi can see, yeah? stop worrying your pretty little head off about me. i’m fine.”

“if you say so”, seonghwa mumbled. wooyoung squeezed him one last time before going to bed too, a muffled “good night” escaping his lips. seonghwa got comfortable next to yeosang, the younger boy looking peaceful as he curled up under the quilt that seonghwa had made as a birthday present for him last year.

“budge over”, seonghwa grumbled. “save some of the blanket for me, too.” yeosang rolled over, seonghwa sliding in under the covers. he roughly took a third of the blanket, covered his shoulders so that he wouldn’t get cold, and snuggled into yeosang; his personal heater.

“night, hwa”, yeosang murmured. he didn’t get a response, though; seonghwa was already fast asleep, snoring softly.

~

“he’s alright”, jongho answered awkwardly, when san asked. “i mean, he’s no yunho, but he’s alright.”

san chuckled sympathetically. “jongho, you can’t keep saying that you’re ‘okay’ with everything. if i were you, i’d have acted like a dick during dinner tonight. you two barely know each other.”

“it’s for father”, jongho whispered. “i want to make him happy. if marrying hongjoong can secure a buisness deal between our families, then i don’t see why not.” jongho straightened out his collar, coughing nervously.

“you’re not an object, jongho-yah. you’re a human, for fucks sake. you can make decisions. i can tell that you want to be out feeding the horses with yunho rather than be cooped up inside doing arithmetic.”

jongho felt his face flush. “stop it, hyung. you’re all confident with wooyoung hyung and everything but i’m not. i can’t just confess to yunho and tell him how i’ve been crushing on him since his father brought him to work a few years ago.” 

san sighed. “fine, then. so when’s hongjoong moving in?” jongho shrugged. “next week. he’s coming with his servant. song mingi, i think?” 

“great. plenty of time for me to give woo what i promised”, san smirks. jongho groans. “hyung, i don’t care about your sex life. leave if you’re going to do nothing but talk about your sexual fantasies.”

san huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. “night, strongho”, san waves, walking towards the door. “if you need me, i’ll be-“

“right next door”, the two of them finish together. “yeah, okay. night, hyung”, jongho shooed, pushing san out the door and locking it behind him. san’s been saying this to him every night since jongho got his own room; he wants the younger to feel protected by his hyung.

jongho desperately wants to be with yunho. he’s not sure if the older boy returns his feelings, but he loves him. being with hongjoong wasn’t his cup of tea, but if it could help his father and the famed lord kim secure a steady relationship, then he wasn’t going to complain.

he wants to, but he isn’t.

~

“hurry up, hongjoong!”, lord kim orders. “i don’t want to be late for tea with lord choi. it’s at three, you know.” hongjoong motions for mingi to quickly move his trunks up to his new room, but the poor boy’s back can’t take it, thanks to mingi’s back issue. a boy with dirty overalls comes over, smiling. “you need help?”, he asks, hefting hongjoong’s trunk onto his shoulder as if it weighed nothing.

“i’m yunho”, the boy introduces, when hongjoong asks. “i’m the stable boy. i work with the horses; big, darling creatures, they are.” hongjoong can’t agree more. he’s got his own pony back home; aurora. they haven’t brought her over, to hongjoong’s dismay. 

yunho makes a couple of rounds to and from hongjoong’s new room, mingi hastily unpacking his master’s clothes and personal items. yunho delivers the last trunk as he wipes the sweat from his brows, setting the luggage down with a soft ‘thunk’.

“i ought to pay you for your troubles”, lord kim insists, digging through his pockets for spare change. “no! it’s alright”, yunho says, shaking his head. “it’s my duty to help, sir. no need for you to pay me.” yunho bowed and waved hongjoong, mingi, and lord kim goodbye before bounding back to the stables.

“lord choi has done well in employing him”, lord kim says. “what do you think, son?”

hongjoong agrees, nodding. “he’s an honest man. i like him.” 

as mingi unpacks, hongjoong is entrusted the task of entertaining his father until it’s time for him to have tea. “i’ve heard that jongho rides, as well”, lord kim comments. “i shall fetch aurora for you next time i visit, so that you two can get some bonding time.” at the mention of his fiance, he can’t help but feel himself go rigid. “yes, father. of course.”

“father, isn’t it time for your tea with lord choi?”, hongjoong hastily adds. lord kim checked his pocket watch, standing up abruptly when he realised how late he was. “oh dear, i’m running late. well then, see you soon, son.” he quickly pats his son on the back before leaving the room, the door slamming shut with a ‘click’. hongjoong let out a sigh of relief, groaning,

“it can’t be that bad, master”, mingi commented, as he hung up hongjoong’s coat. “i haven’t met your jongho yet but he sounds nice.” hongjoong sighed. “didn’t i tell you to call me hongjoong in private, mingi?” the servant flushed red, ducking his head so that hongjoong wouldn’t see his red face.

“of course, h-hongjoong”, mingi stammers. “do you know where i’ll be sleeping? i won’t mind if i have to make do with the floor. i mean, with a pillow and some blankets, i could make it work.” hongjoong shook his head. “nobody’s sleeping on the floor. that extra bed there is yours. you are my personal servant, after all”, hongjoong says, to mingi’s delight. 

“would you like to go explore?”, hongjoong asked, standing up from the chaise lounge that he had been draped over. “of course”, mingi nods, smiling shyly. he shut the wardrobe door and walked over to where hongjoong was standing by the door.

“it sure is big here, master”, mingi says in awe, as the odd pair walk down the endless hallways of choi manor. mingi towers over hongjoong in height, but he always feels small when he’s next to his master. “hongjoong”, the redhead corrects. “master, we’re not in public anymore.” now it’s hongjoong’s turn to feel embarassed.

hongjoong’s surprised to see that the hallways are littered with rare art pieces and tapestries. “admiring the art?”, someone says from behind him. he turns around to find jongho, smiling charmingly at him. “my father loves nature pieces. says that they calm him.”

“it’s a pleasure to see you today, jongho”, hongjoong says, shaking the younger’s hand. “i hope that we can bond with each other during my time here.” mingi smirks from where he’s standing next to hongjoong. jongho bids him farewell, making his way down the hall. “shall we check out the kitchen?”, hongjoong asks mingi, ignoring the teasing smirk that mingi had on his face. “sure”, mingi says, a laugh daring to escape his throat.

“that was so awkward, master”, mingi squeaks, as they make their way towards the kitchen. hongjoong peeks in and finds his eyes landing on the most beautiful man he’s ever seen. he’s speaking dialect with a honey-haired man, laughing about something as he stirs the stew. his skin is tanned by the sun and he has jet black hair that is shimmering with sweat.

the man turns around, and hongjoong swears that his heartbeat stopped for a split second. “need something?”, the man asks. “your name”, hongjoong blurts out. mingi is shaking with quiet laughter now, as he watches his master get so embarrassed over a kitchen boy.

“park seonghwa”, he says, in that deep voice of his. “pleasure to meet you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Whew did y'all like this


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